Date for Entry: (Friday 29th May 2020)
Actual Date of Online Entry: (Monday 29th August 2022)
Dear Diary,
This was my first attempt at
creating a piece of Classical Indian music. The raag of choice was Bhairavi
with the scale's second, third, sixth and seventh degrees lowered by a
semitone. I tried to illustrate this with the notation at the very beginning of
the video. The tonic (or ‘Sa’) is C.
The two main instruments were the
flute and the sitar. A tambourine was added to create a rhythmic pattern and
this pattern was used as an ostinato. Since I did not know how to write for the
tabla, I made an independent rhythmic pattern for the tambourine that gave the
difference between the sound of the big drum and the smaller drum.
Since Musescore does not operate
under the Indian Classical style of music, there was no way to create a tanpura
effect. Instead, a loud gong was used to indicate the beginning of a new cycle
in teen taal. A bowl gong in between would also be heard.
During the composition at 0:47 in
the video, the use of call and response, or question and the answer was
utilised. I did not want the two instruments doing the same melody. I wanted
them interdependent like some sort of conversation. Most likely it felt like
Trinis talking and finishing what the other person was saying.
The dates of the drawing and the
painting were not recorded. The painting was done on a night immediately after
the day of the drawing. The next day after painting the elephant I saw a very
gruesome and hurting story from CNN about people killing elephants in a foreign
land. A mommy elephant and the young children were killed. I wished I had
inserted the little baby elephant when I saw it in my mind but I did not know
how to draw it.
Link(s):
- Hand Drawing & Completed Painting.
- “Elephant Circus” – YouTube Recording.
Daryl Zion M. Ali
